Land Use Code Updates

UPDATING THE COUNTY LAND USE CODE

UPDATING THE LAND USE CODE INVOLVES A MULTI-FACETED APPROACH UTILIZING THE PLANNING COMMISSION, A CODE ADVISORY COMMITTEE AND PLANNING STAFF AS THE FACILITATORS.

CODE ADVISORY COMMITTEE

Committee Guidelines

Next Meeting:

Field Trip: September 7, 2010

Depart Chaffee County Courthouse 12:30 pm

Memo from Staff 9.2.10

Field Trip Agenda

Field Trip Map

The next regularly scheduled meeting will be held on September 21 at 3:00pm at the Chaffee County Courthouse.

Article 3 Zoning

Table 3.1 Dimensional Standards

Table 3.2 Table of Uses

Article 7 Standards

Article 16 Definitions

MEETING SUMMARIES:

The BoCC created the Code Advisory Committee at the Land Use Code Kick Off meeting on Monday November 16, 2009. The Committee is charged with evaluating the proposed language in the future Land Use Code Article 3: Zoning, and Article 7: Standards. The Committee meetings will be open to the public, and will be structured so that public comment will be honored at the end of each meeting.

The Committee is composed of the following Land Use Roundtable focus group representatives. The first name is the primary spokesperson; the second name is the alternate. The alternates are encouraged to attend all of the meetings to stay informed, but their involvement will be minimal to keep the meetings manageable.

Real Estate & Dev: Karin Adams, Mike Allen

Production Agriculture: Bruce Cogan, Nancy Roberts

Water Protection: Reed Dils, Frank McMurry

Sustainable Growth: Keith Baker, Kathy McCoy

Commercial & Industrial: Rick Shovald, Tom Eve

Heritage: Cheryl Brown-Kovacic, Melanie Roth

Government: Dara MacDonald, Dee Miller

PLANNING COMMISSION

September 23 at 10 am at the Chaffee County Courthouse

The Planning Commission holds monthly work sessions on the Chaffee County proposed code. The Planning Commission will not make a recommendation on the individual articles at this time, but are using the work sessions to become familiar with the code provisions and structure, and identifying items which require further discussion. The work sessions are open to the public, and interested parties are encouraged to participate.

Past Reviews: The land use code articles that the Planning Commission has already reviewed include:

Article 1 - General Administration

Article 2 - Land Use Change Permit

Article 4 - Permit Application Review Procedures

Article 5 - Division of Land

Article 10 - Non-conformities

Article 12 - Enforcement, Violations and Penalties

Article 13 - Financial Guarantee

Article 15 - Rubbish, Junk, Weeds and Brush and Unsafe Structures

Accompanied by the Articles, staff submitted working memos discussing the changes from the DOLA model which were tailored to fit Chaffee County's specific needs. For example, Chaffee County has a "Comprehensive Plan", not a "Master Plan". (Note that some memos discuss more than one chapter, and they may be out of order):

Staff Memo - Articles 1, 2 & 10

Staff Memo - Article 4

Staff Memo - Articles 12, 13 & 15

Staff Memo - Article 5

How We Got Here:

In November 2005, following years of meetings (since 2000) and several months of public hearings and comments, the Planning Commission recommended a series of changes to the Zoning Resolution and map. These changes were based on the goals and vision in the Comprehensive Plan of March 2000.

In March of 2006 however, the Board of County Commissioners rejected the Planning Commission's recommendation and pursued additional public input. A series of community meetings (facilitated by Bob Chadwick of Consensus Associates) were held in April of 2006, which identified common goals and underlying themes to be used to develop the land use code. The final report (Chadwick Report) resulted in a recommendation to create a Citizens Land Use Roundtable.

Citizens Roundtable: Focus groups were established including Production Agriculture, Water, Real Estate, Sustainable Growth, Commercial and Industrial Uses, Recreation and Tourism, Governmental Concerns, and Heritage. These groups formed the basis of the Citizens Roundtable, who met approximately 30 times starting in the Fall of 2006 to resolve differing opinions and brainstorm new ideas. On November 13, 2008, the Roundtable came to consensus on a myriad of issues including ranch land viability, economic development, user-friendly land use codes, transportation issues, collaboration with other agencies, and other directives.

The Board of Commissioners commended the Citizens Roundtable for their efforts in contributing to the character and welfare of Chaffee County by adopting Resolution 2008-69 on December 16, 2008. Note that the newly elected Commissioners participated in the final meetings, and endorsed this Resolution, which gives direction to staff to pursue the updates to the land use code and zoning map.

The following documents are the products of the numerous hours spent by citizen volunteers, summarizing the Roundtable’s Recommendations:
Final Citizens Recommendations 11/17/08
Density Proposal FINAL 11/14/08

Appendix A - Illustrative Future Land Use Map FINAL 11/14/08

Appendix C - Land Use Classifications FINAL 11/14/08

Appendix D - Supporting Documentation (includes "Areas of Agreement and Disagreement", Demographic trends and the Chadwick Report Vision)

Note the Planning Commission also made a recommendation from which the land use code update will also be based:

PC Recommendation

Code Writing Strategy:

After recommendations by the Roundtable, the Planning Commission and Planning Staff, the Board of County Commissioners have directed staff to update the Chaffee County Land Use Code as set forth in Resolution 2008-69.

Staff has further been instructed to utilize a Model Code for Counties that was developed by the State Department of Local Affairs (DOLA) as the framework, while incorporating citizen-driven recommendations (The Roundtable Recommendations). DOLA, after years of research and inter-county collaborative efforts, developed the Model Code to assist Colorado counties in preparing land use regulations.

The DOLA Model Code: Many of the provisions in the DOLA Code may not be relevant for Chaffee County, such as oil and gas regulations, but the overall code provides an organizational framework from which to base our code. Land use attorneys were integrally involved in the development of the model code. Hats off to DOLA in helping us save time and money. Call

Kim Antonucci, County Planner II at 719.530.5567

Don Reimer, Development Services Director at 719.530.5566

For more Information